Think Differenthttps://unconventional.co/index.xml
Recent content on Think DifferentHugo -- gohugo.ioen-usMon, 05 Jun 2017 23:47:35 +0800Human Potentialhttps://unconventional.co/post/human-potential/
Mon, 05 Jun 2017 23:47:35 +0800https://unconventional.co/post/human-potential/<p>The human mind is something fascinating. If need be, it can be altered to learn new skills, cultures, perspective and way of thinking. If used properly, it can help to bring out latent potentials in people.</p>
<p>Given how society works nowadays, it is not surprising to see people being complacent and barely set foot outside their comfort zone. The notion of going through life by waking up, working to enrich others by trading one own&rsquo;s time and repeat, rewires one&rsquo;s mind to conform to a system and this makes the mind, comfortable. Shake it up and immediate chaos happens.</p>
<p>However, when one is able to achieve awareness and overcome the undue limits place by oneself, the results are simply astonishing. From someone who has background in Arts and able to pick up Accounting or even Business Administration and able to code, the possibilities are endless. Aside from having such a powerful mind, humans have focus as well. Couple them together, the limits of human potential is now blurred and the sky is the limit.</p>
<p>The initial step is to recognise what is limiting oneself from achieving greatness and then sought to think beyond it. As humans are rationale creatures, reasons drive actions. A person, acting from what seemed to be his mission would result in a better outcome than another who act otherwise.</p>
<p>There are many successful people who once started from the streets. However, persistence, tactfulness, focus, and being present, made them who they are today. That is the power, granted from the human mind, the power to transform and actualise from current level to another above.</p>
Investing in United States of Americahttps://unconventional.co/post/investing-in-united-states/
Sat, 03 Jun 2017 15:39:11 +0800https://unconventional.co/post/investing-in-united-states/<p><strong>Background</strong></p>
<p>Occasionally, I would be getting queries from how do one open an account to invest in US to which counter to buy. As I have no interest in sharing which counter to buy, I am more than happy to share how does one start off investing there.</p>
<p>Before that, lets understand the motivation behind investing in US. Why would one invest in US when he or she can invest in Malaysia or Singapore for that matter?</p>
<p>Aside from US being more capitalised than other countries, it is relatively known that US market has more liquidity as well. That means, investor can easily liquidate his or her position when then need arises. Diversification is another attractive form that US market has to offer. This means, exposure to various industries listed in the exchanges (<a href="https://www.nyse.com">NYSE</a> / <a href="http://nasdaq.com">NASDAQ</a>), options, futures, exchange traded funds and commodities. Furthermore, US market has the <em>free market</em> concept that movements are determine mainly by supply and demand of investor&rsquo;s appetite (with minimal encumbrances from political and regulatory influences). All these build the required momentum to promote capitalism that helps to move humanity forward and help to drive market growth.</p>
<p>Lets substantiate the above with some performance figures on how the stock market has gained/loss over several timelines (5Y, 10Y and 20Y). Just for you readers&rsquo; convenience in case you are not familiar, the key indices used for comparison are Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) - US, Straits Times Index (STI) - SG, and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (KLCI) - MY.</p>
<p><img src="http://i.imgur.com/RPfjdcm.png" alt="5YComparison.JPG" /></p>
<p><em>5Y comparison of 3 indices (source: <a href="http://finance.yahoo.com">Yahoo Finance</a>)</em></p>
<p>In this 5Y chart, readers will notice that DJIA emerged as leader, at gain of 69%, as compared to both STI and KLCI that settled at 18% and 13%, respectively.</p>
<p>Index leader (in order of gains): DJIA, STI, KLCI</p>
<p><img src="http://i.imgur.com/cEsTiiu.png" alt="10YComparison.JPG" /></p>
<p><em>10Y comparison of 3 indices (source: <a href="http://finance.yahoo.com">Yahoo Finance</a>)</em></p>
<p>Looking at a longer tenor, 10Y, DJIA is still the lead gainer at 61%. This time, KLCI placed second at 29% while STI loss 9% over the last 10Y.</p>
<p>Index leader (in order of gains): DJIA, KLCI, STI</p>
<p><img src="http://i.imgur.com/4e1PYNA.png" alt="20YComparison.JPG" /></p>
<p><em>20Y comparison of 3 indices (source: <a href="http://finance.yahoo.com">Yahoo Finance</a>)</em></p>
<p>As it is widely said, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_swan_theory">black swan</a> occur once every 10 years. Hence, lets look back to a 20Y tenor. DJIA overshot other two indices significantly, at 229% gain while both STI and KLCI settled at 45% gain band</p>
<p>Index leader (in order of gains): DJIA, STI, KLCI</p>
<p>With that, it is no doubt that even if an average investor were to index in US, the gains would be better than investing in SG or MY.</p>
<p><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/U2Epn.png" alt="USA.png" /></p>
<p><strong>Deciding The Brokerage Account</strong></p>
<p>Although in US, there are many brokers available (e.g. Interactive Brokers, Charles Schwab, Fidelity, E*Trade, Scottrade and more), the number of them that would onboard customers from Asia is very few.</p>
<p>Some international brokers that Asia customers can opt for, would include:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://tdameritrade.com">TDAmeritrade</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.home.saxo">Saxo Capital Markets</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.interactivebrokers.com">Interactive Brokers</a></li>
</ul>
<p>One might argue that what about local brokers (e.g. in MY or SG) that offers investment opportunities in US as well. Why is there a need to go through the hassle of international brokers and doing twice the amount of work for a brokerage account?</p>
<p>Well in general, most MY and SG brokers charge extensively for convenience (around USD 20 - 30 <strong>per trade</strong>) whereas international brokers charge USD10 or USD11 per trade. So, it is a matter of choice for individual investor, whether to enrich the local brokers or choose other available options. On a personal basis, I prefer the latter.</p>
<p>As how most companies are running nowadays, one can only open an account with the closest international broker available to him or her. This is due to local regulation (the need to operate a locally incorporated entity) and a non-recourse risk management to parent company.</p>
<p>Since most of the international brokers are located in SG, I will explain from that perspective, to both SG and MY audience. With that, the nearest international brokers available, based on the list above are:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.tdameritrade.com.sg">TDAmeritrade SG</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.home.saxo/en-sg">Saxo Capital Markets SG</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/home.php">Interactive Brokers</a></li>
</ul>
<p>There are other international brokers available, but for brevity&rsquo;s sake, I have listed just a few reputable ones that I know.</p>
<p><strong>Opening a US Brokerage Account</strong></p>
<p>Given the local regulator (<a href="http://www.mas.gov.sg">MAS</a>)&rsquo;s regulation, the documentation is slightly extensive for <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Know_your_customer">KYC</a> purposes. Lets get straight to the point on documentations to prepare beforehand:</p>
<ul>
<li>Tax Form W8-BEN (provided by the brokerage)</li>
<li>Customer Account Review Form (provided by the brokerage; as per MAS&rsquo; regulation requirement)</li>
<li>Passport / NRIC</li>
<li>Residential Address Verification (in the form of bills or your MYKAD, if you have used passport earlier)</li>
<li>Employment Verification (Payslip, Annual Tax Filing, Provident Fund Contribution)</li>
</ul>
<p>After preparing the necessary documents that can be prepared beforehand, perform an online registration with the desired international broker via their website. They will provide the necessary forms from their end to complete and the above forms along with theirs, are to be sent back to them.</p>
<p>Upon doing as such, just give them a few days for processing and further clarification (if any) and voila, your account is up and running.</p>
<p>Your chosen broker, will provide instructions on how to wire money to your brokerage account as well. Generally, it involves <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telegraphic_transfer">TT</a> to a US entity and the beneficiary&rsquo;s bank, should be a US bank. Withdrawal process is a breeze as well, whereby you would be giving instructions to wire the money from your brokerage account to your desired bank account.</p>
<p>That is it!</p>
Active And Passive Investinghttps://unconventional.co/post/active-and-passive-investing/
Sun, 26 Mar 2017 19:39:01 +0800https://unconventional.co/post/active-and-passive-investing/
<p>Title: Active and Passive Investing</p>
<p>In the world of investments, there are several areas of consideration to account for, prior to making the jump (i.e. forking out money and making it work for us). The main ones are both risks that one is willing to take and desired returns. Another aspect of the consideration that has been propping up in recent times is <a href="http://www.investopedia.com/terms/a/activeinvesting.asp">active investing</a> versus <a href="http://www.investopedia.com/terms/p/passiveinvesting.asp">passive investing</a>.
<img src="http://i.imgur.com/fysFgrm.jpg" alt="Investing" /></p>
<p>Active investing has been the norm for most markets around the world, including US. This involves active buy-sell by investors or fund managers to exploit the price movement between what market is currently expecting compared to the securities&rsquo; current price. Generally, investors can perform this via direct investing in equities or via funds (i.e. mutual fund / unit trust / collective investment scheme).</p>
<p>On the other hand, passive investing is something that has recently been picked up by investors. It entails investors to maximise returns via minimising the buy-sell activity to avoid unnecessary fees from brokers. They can do this by direct investing in equities (i.e. fundamental investing and hold) or through index funds. Passive investing took a huge leap in recent times, due to funds around the world, popularising it, namely <a href="https://www.vanguard.com">Vanguard</a>. Founded by <a href="http://johncbogle.com">Jack Bogle</a>, he has introduced passive investing (via funds) as the way to go, for retail investors. He was recently <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/warren-buffett-praises-vanguards-jack-bogle-in-annual-letter-2017-2">complimented</a> by the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warren_Buffett">Oracle of Omaha</a> in Warren Buffett&rsquo;s letter to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders.</p>
<p><img src="http://i.imgur.com/lRhgcpB.jpg" alt="Warren Buffett" />
<img src="http://i.imgur.com/DubozjO.jpg" alt="Jack Bogle" /></p>
<p>When it comes to picking an investment strategy, there is no right and wrong. On top of that, there are other things to think about, such as:</p>
<ul>
<li>Amount of time that one can devout for it</li>
<li>Fee tolerance</li>
</ul>
<p>Lets go into these, individually.</p>
<h3 id="time-consideration">Time consideration</h3>
<p><img src="http://i.imgur.com/hpbMn9Q.jpg" alt="Time" /></p>
<p>There are difference in time taken for both the investment strategies considered (active or passive). For starters, both strategies can further be broken down into individual equity and fund investment.</p>
<p>In active investing, the time taken for individual equities are considerably more than investing in funds (aka unit trusts / mutual funds / collective investment funds). It requires investors to keep track on how market is reacting to various events and analyse various price movement patterns (i.e. technical analysis). Funds differ from this, whereby there are fund managers involved in this and their mandate is to maximise profit for unit holders. They are remunerated in ways of fund management fee (usually around 1.50% or 150bps) charged to unit holders. Front-load or sales fee charged by distributors are different and usually range around 5.00% to 5.50%.</p>
<p>Coming to passive investing, it can also be broken down to two categories, namely individual equities and index fund investing. Passive investing in equities requires fundamental approach to analyse the companies that one would like to buy (from financial statements to management team and macro-economic considerations, along with economic moat). One can think of this as buying a piece of real estate. Before buying it, buyers will go through its location, piping, sturdiness, electrical wiring, and its appeal. Such feat requires a lot of time and it is the same as passive investing via equities. After valuing the equities and the investor decides to invest in it, he or she will just ignore it and sleep on it. Occasionally, the investor will catch up on what is going on in the company and ignore any short-term price fluctuation in the market. Besides that, passive investing via index fund is done by buying into funds that track indices. Such indices can be <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/quote/FBMKLCI:IND">FBM Kuala Lumpur Composite Index (KLCI)</a>, <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/quote/STI:IND">Straits Times Index (STI)</a>, <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/quote/HSI:IND">Hang Seng Index (HSI)</a>, <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/quote/INDU:IND">Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA)</a>, and <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/quote/SPX:IND">Standard and Poor&rsquo;s 500 (S&amp;P 500)</a>. Generally, they are bought via <a href="http://www.investopedia.com/terms/e/etf.asp">exchange traded fund (ETF)</a> or even mutual funds that track such indices. Index investing strives to keep cost low (fund management fee is usually 0.05% - 0.15%) for investors and it is achieved via tracking the index rather than trying to beat it. With that, investors can keep most of their earnings rather than having it paid out to brokers or trading houses due to active trading. With index investing, investors need to consider if they have faith in the index that they plan to track. For example, S&amp;P 500 tracks the top 500 companies in US by market capitalisation and represents various sectors that the 500 companies are currently in. The question, in this case, that investors would need to ask themselves is, “Do I have faith in the US economy in the future?”. That simple question, will allow investors to participate in the underlying index investing or otherwise. Once that has been decided, generally investor will park their money there and wait for it to appreciate.</p>
<h3 id="fee-tolerance">Fee Tolerance</h3>
<p><img src="http://i.imgur.com/saRplPX.jpg" alt="Fee, fee" /></p>
<p>Coming to fee, active investing costs more than passive. This is due to the need to actively participate and be involved in the market to try to grab hold of the upsides (if any).</p>
<p>For example, in the Malaysian market, trading houses charge on average 0.42% or a minimum fee per trade (whichever is higher). If a investor buys and sells numerous times and go through such fees, his final profit will be eroded due to the need to apportion a part of it, as fees payable to the broker. From a fund perspective, active investing involves buying mutual funds and investors would need pay the front-load fee (above 5% to the distributor) and annual fund management fee (around 1.50%) and trustee fee (around 0.06%). Though some funds do have good returns but the benchmark tracked against such funds would need to be evaluated. There are mutual funds that are benchmarked against KLIBOR (which is almost a non-moving rate all year round) or even fixed deposit rates, instead of market related returns such as govvies (if the underlying fund is a fixed income fund) or KLCI index (if the underlying fund is a equity fund).</p>
<p>It is not wrong to invest in such active funds as compared to passive investment funds like ETF that tracks indices (with a management fee of 0.05% to 0.15% per annum). The question that investors would need to ask is, &ldquo;How much money do I want to pay this fund management company, from the returns I get, based on appropriate benchmarks?&rdquo;.</p>
<h3 id="all-in-all">All in All</h3>
<p>There is no right nor wrong strategies when it comes to investing. Financial investment vehicles such as, fixed income, equities, or general funds can be great vehicles of investing to preserve capital and growing them as well, provided the risks are properly assessed and the payable fees (if any) are well-thought.</p>
<p>Personally, I advocate passive investment in both individual equities and funds, as I believe in the need to maximise returns by paying lesser fees than active vehicles and understand my underlying investments via fundamental analysis. In the market, the general mantra is, the higher the risk, the greater the return. However, one can obtain high return at low risk, provided he or she does the necessary studies when it comes to passive investing in equities.</p>
<p>Whatever strategies employed by general investors, the first step of investing is already a mini-success as he or she knows the need to beat inflation and capitalise on the time value of money. That itself, speaks a volume compared to those who do not do anything at all.</p>
Discomfort Zonehttps://unconventional.co/post/discomfort-zone/
Sun, 22 Jan 2017 22:27:44 +0800https://unconventional.co/post/discomfort-zone/
<h2 id="background">Background</h2>
<p>One of the commonly used terms today, would be <em>comfort zone</em>. When one is in his or her comfort zone, one feels at ease and safe. Psychologically, one is inclined to stay at such state and not to change to a different state that would affect him or herself, at that point of time. Willpower is required to tell the mind to move out of it.</p>
<p><img src="http://i.imgur.com/cgYPgqX.jpg" alt="Comfort Zone" /></p>
<h2 id="complication">Complication</h2>
<p>Naturally, when one is at ease and one&rsquo;s mental state wants to remain status quo for the longest possible time, results will be mediocre, in everything done. Then, when the time comes for one to evaluate how one&rsquo;s life has progressed in the past years, reality hits hard:</p>
<ul>
<li><em>&ldquo;What have I achieved these past years?</em></li>
<li><em>&ldquo;Years ago, I had set a goal for myself. How far am I from what I have set out to do?&rdquo;</em></li>
<li><em>&ldquo;Have I became so complacent that the fire in me is perishing?&rdquo;</em></li>
</ul>
<p><img src="http://i.imgur.com/wxlyrmP.jpg" alt="Reflection" /></p>
<h2 id="reflection">Reflection</h2>
<p>The key is always to continue to challenge oneself. When the feeling of comfort sets in, it is time to evaluate the environment one is in and find ways to push ahead. What may have been challenging before, may have been settling now. The pursuit for discomfort and challenges, never ends as that is when one truly discovers about oneself and the capabilities or latent potentials that one has.</p>
<p>There is only one life given by God on this Earth, venture to the unknown and explore the depths that life has to offer. Embrace the <strong>discomfort zone</strong>.</p>
<p><img src="http://i.imgur.com/YFSh0DC.jpg" alt="Discomfort Zone" /></p>
Savings Account in Malaysiahttps://unconventional.co/post/savings-account-malaysia/
Sun, 22 Jan 2017 21:17:48 +0800https://unconventional.co/post/savings-account-malaysia/
<h2 id="background">Background</h2>
<p>Most Malaysians, at the very least, own one savings account. According to <a href="http://databank.worldbank.org/data/Population-With-Acc-in-Fin-Institution/id/2a961711">World Bank</a>, 80.7% of Malaysians of the age 15 and above, have accounts in Financial Institution in year 2014. When compared to year 2011, it was only at 66.2%.</p>
<p>On an individual basis, one may have the following accounts:</p>
<ul>
<li>Savings Account</li>
<li>Fixed Deposit Account</li>
<li>Investment Account</li>
</ul>
<p>As the focus would be in Savings Account, the complication comes when one is being bombarded by so many types of it. From Regular Savings Account to Basic Savings Accounts and other Youth Savings Accounts, Elderly Savings Accounts or even Branded Savings Accounts, it is no surprise that one would be confused with such.</p>
<p>So the big question is, <em>which savings account one should opt for?</em></p>
<p>The answer, <strong>it depends.</strong></p>
<p>There are a few factors that would affect one&rsquo;s decision in deciding which type of Savings Account to opt for; they are:</p>
<ul>
<li>Desired Interest Rate level</li>
<li>Frequency of ATM withdrawals</li>
<li>Frequency of Over-The-Counter (OTC) Transactions</li>
<li>Frequency of Interbank Giro (IBG) Transactions</li>
<li>The need for passbook</li>
<li>Other miscellaneous commercial requirements</li>
</ul>
<h2 id="types-of-savings-account">Types of Savings Account</h2>
<p>Regardless of how many savings accounts, marketed by banks in Malaysia, they can be summed up to two main types:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://bankinginfo.com.my/Banking%20Info%20-%20Savings%20Account.html">Regular Savings Account</a></li>
<li><a href="http://bankinginfo.com.my/Banking%20Info%20-%20Basic%20Banking%20Services.html">Basic Savings Account</a></li>
</ul>
<p>In order to have a better understanding, lets have a quick run-through on what <strong>Regular Savings Account</strong> and <strong>Basic Savings Account</strong> are.</p>
<p><img src="http://i.imgur.com/0lZeg7r.jpg" alt="Account Opening" /></p>
<h3 id="regular-savings-account">Regular Savings Account</h3>
<p>Although there are a lot of <em>branded</em> savings account offered by the local banks, the plain vanilla one, i.e. the regular savings account is pretty standard. Its typical characteristics are:</p>
<ul>
<li>No limit to withdrawal frequency in any ATM related to the local bank</li>
<li>Passbook: Yes</li>
<li>Annual maintenance fee / Card fee: MYR 8 per annum, indicatively for ATM cards</li>
</ul>
<p>For some that place deposits with the bank, giving them moolah while they can use it to earn more money (Current OPR as of published date is 3.00% and typical weighted avg of interest paid to regular savings account is 0.10%. Hence, bank&rsquo;s spread is 2.90% per annum, free money) and charging that extra fee there, may not make sense. With that, the other alternative comes in.</p>
<h3 id="basic-savings-account">Basic Savings Account</h3>
<p>Back in 1-Feb-2005, Bank Negara mandated all deposit-taking banks in Malaysia to offer such facility to all Malaysia citizens and Permanent Residents, as per this <a href="http://www.bnm.gov.my/index.php?ch=en_press&amp;pg=en_press&amp;ac=950&amp;lang=en">link</a>. Its objective, is to provide public with commonly used banking facilities to meet their general requirements, at minimal cost.</p>
<p>A typical characteristics for a Basic Savings Account are:</p>
<ul>
<li>OTC Transactions: Limited to 6 times per month</li>
<li>ATM Withdrawals: Limited to 8 times per month</li>
<li>IBG Transactions: Limited to 2 times per month at MYR 0.53 (inclusive GST), subsequently, the bank has the right to charge higher amount</li>
<li>Passbook: None</li>
<li>ATM Card: Yes, provided</li>
<li>Annual maintenance fee / Card fee: None</li>
</ul>
<p>So, which account is appropriate for one? The correct question to ask would be, which savings account would benefit one, based on one&rsquo;s lifestyle?</p>
<p>Rather than experiencing overload in information, one would have to structure them so that the decision made, would be an informed one.</p>
<p>Stay smart!</p>
Hello Hugohttps://unconventional.co/post/hello-hugo/
Wed, 07 Dec 2016 01:44:56 +0800https://unconventional.co/post/hello-hugo/<p>It is high-time now to update this site and now; instead of using <a href="https://jekyllrb.com/">Jekyll</a> as the static site generator, this site is now using <a href="https://gohugo.io/">Hugo</a> instead!</p>
<p><img src="http://i.imgur.com/XDPrjrD.jpg" alt="jekyll.JPG" /></p>
<p>====== To ======</p>
<p><img src="http://i.imgur.com/DRF8uNF.jpg" alt="hugo.JPG" /></p>
<p>The page generation speed for Hugo is insanely fast as it is built with <a href="https://golang.org/">Go</a> and it has a lot of <a href="http://themes.gohugo.io/">themes</a> that goes hand-in-hand with your site&rsquo;s intent.</p>
<p>Highly recommended indeed and back to writing!</p>
The Art of Learninghttps://unconventional.co/post/the-art-of-learning/
Sun, 01 Jun 2014 00:00:00 +0000https://unconventional.co/post/the-art-of-learning/<h2 id="musings-of-learning">Musings of Learning</h2>
<p>It is often said that one should never stop learning and the day when one stops learning is when he or she embraces failure or he or she is buried six-feet under. While there are so many things to learn, everyone ought to be selective on what to learn as well.</p>
<p><img src="https://unconventional.co/images/learning.jpg" alt="Learning" title="Learning" /></p>
<p>
Education institution has always supposed to be, a noble place for everyone to pick up knowledge. Notice the term, &lsquo;supposed&rsquo;. The primary reason why I put the term there is because, what is supposed to be a noble job has become a cash-cow machine or a propaganda tool by those that are in power. I have always been a supporter of capitalism, but when we have a scenario whereby people who did not put into effort are rewarded while people who worked their asses off are not rewarded, regardless of what system or mechanism is being put to sustain such &ldquo;feel-good&rdquo;, it will fail. For example, we have schools here emphasizing that the young padawans should memorize term by term for a moral examination. Probably sometimes most people do not get it but, <strong>memorizing or studying does not equate to doing</strong>. It is unfortunate to see such noble institution deteriorate to such state, from such noble cause of moving human civilization forward to making people dumber by the day or milking the life out of others just to make money. Heck, as per <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow%27s_hierarchy_of_needs">Abraham Maslow&rsquo;s Hierarchy of Needs</a>, Esteem is one of the base that builds to Self-Actualization! Here we a situation, that people are attempting to limit others&rsquo; access to knowledge to gain Esteem and impeding them from Self-Actualization. So much for &ldquo;Fulfilling The Country&rsquo;s Aspiration&rdquo;.</p>
<p>Fortunately, with the power of the Internet, the capability of one to access knowledge is has been broken down tremendously. People now can <a href="http://www.google.com">&lsquo;Google&rsquo;</a> for information which they do not understand and also access to <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/app/itunes-u/id490217893?mt=8&amp;ls=1">free online courses of various discipline effort by esteemed higher learning institution around the world</a>. Nowadays, college dropouts can embrace the power of the Internet by learning web development by themselves and start contributing to the social with useful web application developments and also make some green while doing so.</p>
<h2 id="being-fussy-about-learning">Being Fussy About Learning</h2>
<p>Our time in this world is limited. We will never know when we will get called by God and leave this world. Thus, it is imperative for us to manage our time from financial aspect to social aspect and that includes learning as well. During high school days, everyone is expected to learning more than 7 subjects and swallow in all the information and just regurgitate them out during examination. So much for learning indeed. Moving on to university, although one has a clearer idea of what he or she wants to do, the same principle still applies (swallow information, regurgitate them during exam), only in a more specialize subject matter. Finally, when it comes to work itself, only a handful of what is learnt is applicable to work. Talk about a waste of time and money.</p>
<p>The complication is, most people tend to learn things such as the most recent movies released and also the recent pop songs out in the market rather than focusing on the two skill category above. Seriously? Unless one has vested interest in media, there is no reason to shift most learning capability to the top media items out there in the market.</p>
<p>Going forward, it is important for one to know what he or she wants to do in life and how he or she can contribute to the society at large. That will form the basis of how one allocates time to pick up important skillsets that will lead to the goal that is set. It varies among everyone on how long one will take to realize what he or she truly wants but that is the most important step.</p>
<p>Next, lay out all the required skillsets to pick up and get going with the learning. Everyone has the following two big category of skillsets to pick up from:</p>
<ul>
<li>Basic Necessity Skills</li>
<li>Goal-Achieving Skills</li>
</ul>
<p>Basic Necessity Skills are skills which we cannot run away from. That includes:</p>
<ul>
<li>Financial knowledge</li>
<li>Basic cooking knowledge</li>
<li>Hygiene knowledge</li>
<li>Management knowledge</li>
</ul>
<p>If one lacks even one of these skills, he or she has to depend on others and currenly unable to be independent. This is akin to being a toddler and require adults to constant feed him or her. If one cannot manage these Basic Necessity Skills, how will he or she be able to conquer those Goal-Achieving Skills?</p>
<p>Goal-Achieving Skills can only be tapped into once one has properly handle his or her Basic Necessity Skills. Here is where one will project where he or she want to be 10 - 20yrs down the road and start working his or her ass off to get there.</p>
<p>For example, one may aspire to setup a software-as-a-service (SAAS) company. With that, he or she will commence acquiring the knowledge and skills such as <a href="http://rubyonrails.org/">Ruby on Rails</a> or <a href="https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/documentation/cocoa/conceptual/ProgrammingWithObjectiveC/Introduction/Introduction.html">Objective-C</a> in order to build the necessary ecosystem of the SAAS, be it web application or mobile application. Only by having such knowledge then one can manage such company by hiring those others who are good in such field.</p>
<p>It is important to identify one&rsquo;s desire, identify the necessary knowledge to achieve the desire and go and learn them and only them in the process of obtaining Goal-Achieving Skills.</p>
<h2 id="focused-learning">Focused Learning</h2>
<p>During learning, one may spend long hours in order to gain the related knowledge. One may also realize that there are people who only spend one or two hours and may potential gain the same amount of information as compared to the earlier personnel before. How does one do that?</p>
<p><img src="https://unconventional.co/images/mindmeditation.jpg" alt="Wonders of the Mind" title="Wonders of the Mind" /></p>
<p>It is all about focused learning; when the mind is atuned to the subject matter, wonderful things will happen. That includes, increased knowledge absorption capability, increased knowledge retention period and increased understandng capability. One may learning items for a almost one full day and barely get anything out of it; that is a pure waste of time and it is a sin. Instead of allocating one full day to pick up knowledge, it is important to understand one&rsquo;s limitation and use that period of learning with focused learning; then use the remaining time for mind-relaxation activities and repeat.</p>
<p>This may seem like the obvious but one will be surprised on a number of people&rsquo;s attitude when it comes to learning.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>&ldquo;Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school.&rdquo; - Albert Einstein</p>
</blockquote>Dreams and Realityhttps://unconventional.co/post/dreams-and-reality/
Wed, 30 Oct 2013 00:00:00 +0000https://unconventional.co/post/dreams-and-reality/<h2 id="the-desire">The Desire</h2>
<p>It has always been one&rsquo;s desire in order to achieve his or her goals. As per <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow's_hierarchy_of_needs">Abraham Maslow</a>, self-actualisation sits at the top of the hierarchy. The main criteria in order for oneself to achieve self-actualisation would be:</p>
<ol>
<li>Identify one&rsquo;s potentials</li>
<li>Live them out</li>
<li>Master them</li>
</ol>
<p></p>
<p>This leads to desire. Everyone has desires or goals which he or she would like to fulfill during his or her lifetime. Through the the process of identification of goals and achieving them, one finds his or her self-worthiness and what it means to be oneself. Also, he or she would be able to associate with other peers who potentially share the same goals and work together to obtain the same achievement together.</p>
<p>Not only self-actualisation is a self-rewarding stage of life, it also complements the Fourth Need (Esteem) and Third Need (Love and Belonging). Due to this, one is driven towards actualisation discovery regardless how long it may take (from months to years or even a lifetime).</p>
<h2 id="the-road-to-dream-realising">The Road to Dream-Realising</h2>
<p>Upon realising the goal at hand, one would work out plans and ways in order to achieve it. From conceptualisation to execution, many form of paths will be experimented just to find the one that leads to the goal. Not to mention, finding mentors who one can look up to and also reading the journey undertaken by such mentors provide an additional nudge to continue to stay focus on the dream.</p>
<h2 id="the-stumbling-block-of-realism">The Stumbling Block of Realism</h2>
<p>Reality starts to kick in at the early stage of feedback gathering. This is when one shares with even his or her close friends or family that what he or she set out to achieve. Naturally, they would provide advices which highlight the detrimental effects on going against the norm or the herd.</p>
<p>Looking objectively, perhaps it is just the human mind&rsquo;s tendency to <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/24/your-money/why-people-remember-negative-events-more-than-positive-ones.html">remember negative things stronger than positive ones</a>. Having said that, we may just project what we deemed correct and our experiences which relates to his or her dream.</p>
<p>Not to mention, when one breaks down the plan to manageable crumbs, the journey which may seemed quite short, is unexpectedly longer than before. The effort required to continuously pursue the goal and the long term focus is enormous. At times, after spending from hours to days to weeks and months, one would raise this question:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Is it really worth it to pursue this?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>So, there are really two forces at play here:</p>
<ul>
<li>The external environment</li>
<li>The inner-self</li>
</ul>
<h2 id="the-continuous-journey">The Continuous Journey</h2>
<p>When all seems bleak, it is good to let intuition to take over the rational mind. One would just shut the rational mind which continuously feed information based on external environment (which may consist of noise and signal) and the inner-self and let the gut-feel come to play.</p>
<p>The wonderful thing about intuition is that it is akin to one&rsquo;s inner-call where lies one&rsquo;s hidden potential. <a href="http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/200212/the-powers-and-perils-intuition">Let it take over in a controlled manner can yield a powerful personal compass yet let it run wild and the after-effects are not to be trifled with</a>.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.dilbert.com/about/">Scott Adam</a>, the creator of <a href="http://www.dilbert.com/">Dilbert</a>, has a <a href="http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304626104579121813075903866">great proposition</a>. He shared that rather than being goal-oriented, one can opt to be system-oriented. That manner, changes the perception if a goal fails. One can pick up lessons learnt from failures and apply them to the next-big-thing.</p>
<p>As for the one who dreamt of a dream which transpired to a desire and goal(s), having to face the stumbling block of reality is part and parcel of the adventure. In the end, if one maintains sufficient focus and listen to one&rsquo;s inner-self, that alone will set one apart from those who dream and work towards it and those who dream and do nothing about it. Such is a wonderful journey which lies ahead.</p>
<p>What a reminder to myself.</p>Gold Rushhttps://unconventional.co/post/gold-rush/
Mon, 17 Jun 2013 00:00:00 +0000https://unconventional.co/post/gold-rush/<h2 id="an-introduction">An Introduction</h2>
<p>Gold rush has always been in existent since the early 19th century. During those times, its definition leaned towards a period of feverish migration of workers to an area that has had a dramatic discovery of gold deposits. Since then, things have changed. Our society is gaining awareness that the value of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiat_money">fiat money</a> depreciates over time and they have been on the bandwagon to search for investment vehicles with high yield, many of which perceived gold as one of the suitable investment vehicle.</p>
<p></p>
<p>In this modern era, gold rush has taken into a new look. People are now buying physical gold (in the form of bullion or jewellery) or even paper gold (in the form of Exchange Traded Fund that trades in gold) in order to hedge inflation risk and depreciating value of fiat money. The complication arises when it comes to evaluating and considering the need for <strong>sustainable</strong> investment vehicle which one definitely feels that he or she is not gambling his or her hard-earned money on some odds which is uncontrollable.</p>
<p><img src="http://demonocracy.info/infographics/world/gold/images/demonocracy-gold-400-oz.jpg" alt="400 Troy Oz of Gold 999.9 Fine Bullion Bar by Demonocracy.info" title="400 Troy Oz of Gold 999.9 Fine Bullion Bar by Demonocracy.info" /></p>
<h2 id="gold-rush-really">Gold Rush, Really?</h2>
<p>Undoubtly, there are many people who have made their wealth via investing in gold and realizing a profit (note that I have included a caveat, realizing profit). One does not make money and only enjoy unrealized gain unless one realizes it via selling the asset. Over the period of 5yrs, gold prices has increased above 50% from (2008 until 2013) as below:</p>
<div><a href="http://www.infomine.com/investment/metal-prices/gold/5-year/"><img border="0" src="http://charts.infomine.com?288" alt="5 Year Gold Prices - Gold Price Chart" width="180" height="150" /></a></div>
<p>With the assumption that fiat money will decrease in value and inflation continuously increase, does buying gold effectively hedge those risks in a sustainable manner?</p>
<p>Lets delve deeper into some of usage of gold which could possibly contribute to its demand.</p>
<p>Among the main applications of gold are:</p>
<ul>
<li>Jewellery</li>
<li>Dental</li>
<li>Medical</li>
<li>Electronics</li>
<li>Aerospace</li>
<li>Computers</li>
<li>Awards</li>
<li>Glass</li>
<li>Gilding</li>
</ul>
<p>Based on <a href="http://www.gold.org/">World Gold Council&rsquo;s</a> data for gold demand for the year 2012, below are some interesting figures:</p>
<ul>
<li>45.5% accounts for jewellery</li>
<li>34.3% accounts for investment</li>
<li>8.1% accounts for technology</li>
<li>12.2% accounts for central bank and other institution</li>
</ul>
<p>(Refer to this <a href="http://www.gold.org/supply-and-demand/interactive-gold-market-charting">link</a> for more info)</p>
<p>From the math above, one can ask a simple question, &ldquo;Looking at the two largest chunks, jewellery and investment, does both of them really help to stimulate the economy and provide sustainable investment?&rdquo;</p>
<p>As Charlie Munger shared, &ldquo;Remember that highest and best use is always measured by the next best use&rdquo;, thus, would be fair to compare with other investment vehicle. Lets take property investment, population has always been on the increasing trend (refer to chart below from World Bank).</p>
<iframe src="http://data.worldbank.org/share/widget?end=2015&indicators=SP.POP.TOTL&start=1960&view=chart" width='500' height='333' frameBorder='0' scrolling="no"></iframe>
<p>Thus, it makes sense to invest in property be it for rental income or capital gain (lets hope there would not be another subprime mortgage crisis in the making).</p>
<p>Although Central Banks have been proven to use gold as their reserves, but to the fundamental economy, gold&rsquo;s contribution is at a minimal. At the end, people tend to purchase gold because they perceive its value will continue to grow due to continuous demand from the Central Banks and also devaluation of fiat money; neglecting its economical fundamental contribution. This is almost akin to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulip_mania">tulipmania</a>.</p>
<h2 id="tulipmania-a-classic-example-of-non-fundamental-economical-contribution">Tulipmania, A Classic Example of Non-Fundamental Economical Contribution</h2>
<p>In the early 16th century, tulips were first grown in Western Europe. Not long later, the wealthy people in Amsterdam sought the bulbs, paid high prices for them. That is the onset of the world&rsquo;s earliest financial crisis.</p>
<p>At the height of the tulip&rsquo;s reputation, it became a must-have for all wealthy people. If they do not own them, they were considered to have bad taste. Not to mention, even the middle class people were caught in the frenzy, willing to spend preposterous price (for some, that involves half of his/her life savings) for a single bulb so that his/her friends will admire it.</p>
<p>In order to have a feel on how crazy it was, the table below describes the price of a single Viceroy bulb:</p>
<table>
<thead>
<tr>
<th>Item</th>
<th>Value (florins)</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>Two lasts of wheat</td>
<td>440</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Four lasts of rye</td>
<td>558</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Four fat oxen</td>
<td>480</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Eight fat swine</td>
<td>240</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Twelve fat sheep</td>
<td>120</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Two hogsheads of wine</td>
<td>70</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Four casks of beer</td>
<td>32</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Two tons of butter</td>
<td>192</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>A complete bed</td>
<td>100</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>A suit of clothes</td>
<td>80</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>A silver drinking cup</td>
<td>60</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>Total</strong></td>
<td><strong>2,500</strong></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>The tulips were even traded on Amsterdam&rsquo;s Stock Exchange and in other towns as well during the height of the tulipmania. Stockbrokers were cashing money into their pocket by creating fluctuation in the price of tulips and with such high demand, minor price flunctuation could translate to high volume of sales and purchases. Many individuals suddenly grew rich with this mania.</p>
<p>People were purchasing bulbs at a high price and intend to re-sell them for a profit. Such scheme could not last unless there are proper fundamentally backed economic value behind it. Someone had to pay such high prices and take possession of the bulbs. At the dawn of its crash, tulip traders could no longer find new buyers willing to pay inflated prices for their bulbs. With this realization, demand for tulips collapsed and prices dropped.</p>
<p>Many people lost their savings and their homes due to their desire to join in the frenzy.</p>
<p>Feel free to read more on tulipmania <a href="http://www.thetulipomania.com/">here</a>.</p>
<h2 id="conclusion">Conclusion</h2>
<p>It is always very important to do some number crunching along with rationalization on what investment vehicles to opt for. Always opt for the one which has proper economical fundamentals (such as stocks or property investments) which are backed by fundamental figures. At the end, we are the stewards of our own money.</p>Of Wants and Could Notshttps://unconventional.co/post/wants-and-could-nots/
Mon, 27 May 2013 00:00:00 +0000https://unconventional.co/post/wants-and-could-nots/<h2 id="background">Background</h2>
<p>I have gotten the opportunity to talk to so many wonderful individuals (be it friends or families or strangers) throughout my entire life thus far and I notice an interesting trait from most of them:</p>
<p><em>I want to be successful in this field but I couldn&rsquo;t afford to spend time in learning it because [insert your own imaginations here].</em></p>
<p>It baffles me, really.</p>
<p></p>
<h2 id="introduction-explained-in-scenario-s-complication-c-question-q-answer-a">Introduction, explained in Scenario ( S ), Complication ( C ), Question ( Q ) &amp; Answer ( A )</h2>
<p>For the benefit of all, SCQA, also known as The Minto Pyramid Principle, is developed by <a href="http://www.barbaraminto.com/">Barbara Minto</a>. It is aimed to provide the writer or presenter an engaging introduction to his or her audience.</p>
<p>In the effort to further my background of this post, let me share with you a scenario. We all are aware (or at least I presume we are), that with the concept time value of money, money today would worth more than money in the future. This is because, with the amount of cash which we have today, we can invest it (be it in properties, stocks, businesses, funds etc.) and grow the amount in future. Not to mention, inflation will drive prices up in the future causing rising cost of living. Due to the present opportunity to earn yields and the rise in inflation, thus the value of money will be altered. Many individuals shared with me that they are aware of the need to learn more ample ways to grow money rather than relying on their sole active income (aka employment salary) in order to ensure they can retire fast and rich. However, it is easier said than done, or at least what some may presume it as such.</p>
<p>The bells strikes when it comes to the golden question, <em>&ldquo;If you are aware of it (importance of understanding time value of money), why did not you act on it?&rdquo;</em>. Some interesting feedbacks are:</p>
<ul>
<li><em>&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know how to do it.&rdquo;</em></li>
<li><em>&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t dare to take the risk to do it.&rdquo;</em></li>
<li><em>&ldquo;I couldn&rsquo;t commit time for it because I need to work.&rdquo;</em></li>
<li><em>&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t have the money to do it.&rdquo;</em></li>
<li><em>&ldquo;I want to do it but I don&rsquo;t know who to ask.&rdquo;</em></li>
</ul>
<p>And the list goes on. So much time have been spent to think of reasons but so little time spent on thinking the solution. Here is the thing, when we move on from young adults to family life, we would even need to devote more time for our beloved future family. That being said, we would even have less time to think about these let alone to act upon it. Then, the reasons continue to stay until one day, our brain reached &ldquo;nirvana&rdquo; thinking, <em>&ldquo;Why am I spending my life doing something which I do not like to do and stay just because of the money? What have I achieved so far as being myself and contribute to the circle of people whom I interact with? When I die, what will I be remembered as?&rdquo;</em> That is when the thought of life-crisis happen, be it mid-life or quarter-life.</p>
<p>Further on, the question I would like to pose out to all, <em>&ldquo;Are you serious in reaching your life&rsquo;s goal and not allowing the shackles of finance to restrain you or are you just going to let life pass by you just like that and go with the flow?&rdquo;</em></p>
<p>Personally, I am definitely serious on getting my goals achieved and I would not allow financial conditions to restrain myself from achieving them. When I die, I would want to be remembered as the jerk to most of the people rather than the nobody to all. I am sure you all would want to as well.</p>
<p>From all the inputs which I garnered, I managed to summarize them to three main points:</p>
<ol>
<li>Fear of uncertainty</li>
<li>Fear of going against the herd</li>
<li>Fear of failing</li>
</ol>
<h2 id="fear-of-uncertainty">Fear of Uncertainty</h2>
<p>Our scumbag mind works in an interesting manner. Our brain tends to resist change and always conditions itself to continue to work on things which it is familiar, not things which it is not familiar. Take a look at <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow%27s_hierarchy_of_needs">Abraham Maslow&rsquo;s Hierarchy of Needs</a> below:</p>
<p><img src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/60/Maslow%27s_Hierarchy_of_Needs.svg" alt="Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs" title="Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs" /></p>
<p>Safety Need actually is just above the Physiological Need. That explains why our brain tends to be in a defensive mode whenever there are changes in the external environment of the body. Furthermore, it is programmed in a way to understand that, <strong>the best way of doing things, is continuously doing things which it is familiar with.</strong> This actually happens due to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_conditioning">Classical or Pavlovian Conditioning</a>. Thanks to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivan_Pavlov">Ivan Pavlov</a>, he discovered this scenario via pairing of two stimuli in an experiment. He presented the dogs with a ringing bell followed by food. By repetitively doing so, he actually brought together two stimuli (both the dog food and also ringing of the bell). Thus, as the experiment progressed, whenever he rang the bell, the dogs salivated even though there were no food provided to them. The same goes for us; we have been so conditioned to do the ordinary things (e.g. put our money in savings, strive and aim high in employment and live the rat race), until our mind automatically falls back to it whenever we are being presented with different options which may turn out to be better for us in our lives (e.g. invest our money in an investment vehicle, strive for entrepreneurship to improve the needs of people and get out of the rat race).</p>
<p>One good reminder so that we do not fall into the pitfall of our brain&rsquo;s tendency to be defensive and the classical conditioning which has been wired into us; would be, remind ourselves of successful people such as Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, and Richard Branson. They definitely went through times of uncertainty throughout their entire lives and guess what, they do not let uncertainty get the best of them but rather they get the best of it. We can do too, by continuously be open to options and willing to try different things in our lives. At the end of the day, it is always about the journey, not just the end goal.</p>
<h2 id="fear-of-going-against-the-herd">Fear of Going Against the Herd</h2>
<p>As human beings, we are a social species. We would prefer to have a community to belong to and seek accountability, respect and ultimately, love partner. From <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow%27s_hierarchy_of_needs">Maslow&rsquo;s Hierarchy of Needs</a>, Love and Belonging Need is just above Safety Need. This actually reflects the importance of belongingness for ourselves.</p>
<p>The twist comes when most people tend to fear uncertainty. Usually, it is in the majority group rather than the minority. For us, if we were to try to act different from the majority, we would be fearful that we will not be accepted by our community, let alone, fostering good companionship with selected individuals from our community. As this cycle goes on, at the end, without realizing, we may potentially end up with the majority; being fearful of uncertainty and bearing a huge opportunity cost. All just because we are fearful that we may not be accepted in our community if we choose to act differently with our lives.</p>
<p>It is alright for us to always choose to be different and act as it is. Sometimes, we may ended up being unaccepted by our <em>normal</em> peers but we may meet with others who are striving to be different as well and take charge of their lives like we are. Here is an interesting quote which can serve as a good reminder:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>&ldquo;Acquire worldly wisdom and adjust your behaviour accordingly. If your new behaviour gives you a little temporary unpopularity with your peer group then to hell with them.&rdquo; - Charlie Munger, Vice-Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway</p>
</blockquote>
<h2 id="fear-of-failing">Fear of Failing</h2>
<p><img src="https://unconventional.co/images/failureorsuccess.jpg" alt="Failure or Success" title="Failure or Success" /></p>
<p>I do fear failure as much as everyone else do. I am always uncomfortable of failing and would want to be successful in whatever I am doing. I have never been so wrong before.</p>
<p><img src="https://unconventional.co/images/ihaveneverbeensowrong.jpg" alt="Yeah, I have never been so wrong before" title="Yeah, I have never been so wrong before" /></p>
<p>Most education systems punish the so-called failures and promote the winners. That is indeed, not very practical to do so especially in real-life which we would need to try things out before knowing that we would fail or succeed. Thanks to such conditioning (yeah, I know right), even for areas such as our career or investing, we dare not take the first step for we fear that we would fail. We fear that if we were to opt for entrepreneurship, we would lose time and also potential promotion if we stick to our normal careers instead. Our peers would potentially surpass us during our absence as they continue to work on their role in their employment. In the investing perspective, we fear that a bear will come and maul our profits and potentially cause us to lose our initial capital as well.</p>
<p>Realizing that &ldquo;Failure is the Mother of Success&rdquo; can be the first step to take, in order to overcome such fear. As cliché as the previous statement may sound, it is actually true. I would testify it from the perspective of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salsa_%28dance%29">salsa dance</a>. I dance salsa during my free time, and one of the main responsibility of a salsero is to lead his lady <strong>properly</strong> on the dance floor. There are occasions (note the term, are) which my lead has to be improved as some ladies told me that they were confused on where I wanted them to do. That sucks, really, and it is a clean hit to the ego. With that, I just swallowed them and continue to note down what I ought to look out for whenever I social dance with ladies. Nowadays, there are times when the ladies commented, <em>&ldquo;It was fun dancing with you! Thanks for being such a great dancer!&rdquo;</em> They are edifying indeed but I definitely would note that it is a continuous learning process for myself. This implies the same in the area of investing and also career perspective. It really boils down to how badly we want it. If we really want it badly, we would take failures head on and learn to improve from it and one day, score the goal which we aimed!</p>
<h2 id="conclusion">Conclusion</h2>
<p>Fear is an illusion created by ourselves. It is up to ourselves to go against it head on and make a difference to our lives and the lives around us. Personally, I am always on the wrestle to ensure I do not give in to my fears and continue to set my eyes upon my dreams. With that, let me share a great quote with you:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>&ldquo;The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dream&rdquo; - Eleanor Roosevelt</p>
</blockquote>Bookshttps://unconventional.co/books/
Thu, 23 May 2013 00:00:00 +0000https://unconventional.co/books/
<h2 id="bryan-s-bookshelf">Bryan&rsquo;s Bookshelf</h2>
<div class="row">
<div class="col-md-12">
<img src= "/images/poorcharliealmanack.jpg" style="margin:0 10px 10px 0; width:200px; height:300px;" \>
<img src= "/images/theintelligentinvestor.jpg" style="margin:0 10px 10px 0; width:200px; height:300px;" \>
</div>
</div>
<div class="row">
<div class="col-md-12">
<img src= "/images/thesnowball.jpg" style="margin:0 10px 10px 0; width:200px; height:300px;" \>
<img src= "/images/fiverulesforsuccessfulstockinvesting.jpg" style="margin:0 10px 10px 0; width:200px; height:300px;" \>
</div>
</div>
<div class="row">
<div class="col-md-12">
<img src= "/images/increaseyourfinancialiq.jpg" style="margin:0 10px 10px 0; width:200px; height:300px;" \>
<img src= "/images/milandoshipropertyinvestor.jpg" style="margin:0 10px 10px 0; width:200px; height:300px;" \>
</div>
</div>
<div class="row">
<div class="col-md-12">
<img src= "/images/milandoshistockandproperty.jpg" style="margin:0 10px 10px 0; width:200px; height:300px;" \>
<img src= "/images/7habitsofhighlyeffectivepeople.jpg" style="margin:0 10px 10px 0; width:200px; height:300px;" \>
</div>
</div>
<div class="row">
<div class="col-md-12">
<img src= "/images/startupownermanual.jpg" style="margin:0 10px 10px 0; width:200px; height:300px;" \>
<img src= "/images/zerotoone.jpg" style="margin:0 10px 10px 0; width:200px; height:300px;" \>
</div>
</div>
<div class="row">
<div class="col-md-12">
<img src= "/images/commonstocksanduncommonprofits.jpg" style="margin:0 10px 10px 0; width:200px; height:300px;" \>
<img src= "/images/likeavirgin.jpg" style="margin:0 10px 10px 0; width:200px; height:300px;" \>
</div>
</div>
<div class="row">
<div class="col-md-12">
<img src= "/images/hardthingsabouthardthings.jpg" style="margin:0 10px 10px 0; width:200px; height:300px;" \>
<img src= "/images/titan.jpg" style="margin:0 10px 10px 0; width:200px; height:300px;" \>
</div>
</div>
<div class="row">
<div class="col-md-12">
<img src= "/images/securityanalysis.jpg" style="margin:0 10px 10px 0; width:200px; height:300px;" \>
<img src= "/images/ember101.jpg" style="margin:0 10px 10px 0; width:200px; height:300px;" \>
</div>
</div>
Principles of Value Investinghttps://unconventional.co/post/principles-of-value-investing/
Wed, 22 May 2013 00:00:00 +0000https://unconventional.co/post/principles-of-value-investing/<p><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Intelligent-Investor-Definitive-Investing-Practical/dp/0060555661">The Intelligent Investor</a> is definitely one of the best book for all value investors out there. It combines business philosophy, rationalization and mathematics to argue on the latent potential of value investing by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Graham">Benjamin Graham</a>.</p>
<p><img src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-n6rqj9PXCaI/URC2e8x5mVI/AAAAAAAAAZc/LNvJlrueZCQ/w395-h529-no/8EFEBC8D-916E-4B5D-B1B8-A6550588FC0D.JPG" alt="The Intelligent Investor" title="The Intelligent Investor" /></p>
<p>Investing, according to Graham, consists equally of three elements:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>A company must be analysed thoroughly along with the soundess of its underlying business before buying its stock</p></li>
<li><p>One must deliberately protect oneself against serious losses</p></li>
<li><p>One should aspire to be adequate return, provided he or she acts with reasonable intelligence</p></li>
</ol>
<p>One great tip which he left regarding the purchase of stocks:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>If you are shopping for common stocks, choose them the way you would buy groceries, not the way you would buy perfume. - Benjamin Graham</p>
</blockquote>
Abouthttps://unconventional.co/about/
Tue, 21 May 2013 00:00:00 +0000https://unconventional.co/about/
<h2 id="the-author">The Author</h2>
<script src="//about.me/embed/bryanwongbh?style=site"></script>
Back From the Asheshttps://unconventional.co/post/back-from-the-ashes/
Tue, 21 May 2013 00:00:00 +0000https://unconventional.co/post/back-from-the-ashes/<p>Unconventional.co is now back online, powered by both <a href="https://www.openshift.com">Openshift</a> and <a href="http://octopress.org/">Octopress</a>. Stay tuned for more updates!</p>
The Renewalhttps://unconventional.co/post/the-renewal/
Tue, 21 May 2013 00:00:00 +0000https://unconventional.co/post/the-renewal/<h2 id="introduction">Introduction</h2>
<p>This post summarises on the setup of Octopress on Openshift which utilizes Greyshade theme as per Unconventional.co.</p>
<p>As I have mentioned in my previous <a href="http://www.unconventional.co/blog/2013/05/21/back-from-the-ashes/">post</a>, Unconventional.co is alive and kicking! Previously, it is hosted on <a href="https://www.heroku.com/">Heroku</a> and powered by <a href="https://github.com/natew/obtvse">Obtvse</a>. After Heroku added a 10k rows of DB limit for its Development box, I thought it was time to explore on another Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) and hopefully, I do not need to change to another service.
Not to mention, I still got a lot to learn in terms of configuring a database (be it mysql or postgresql) to match it with a particular PaaS&rsquo; offering (believe me, it is a pain in the a$$). Thus, having a blog that requires database configuration for a particular PaaS and maintenance is a hassle and I would much prefer to spend time to pen down ideas than to try to configure a database that works on one PaaS but does not work on another.</p>
<p>I have been working on <a href="https://www.openshift.com/‎">Openshift</a> for a fair bit and its <a href="https://www.openshift.com/developers/pricing">pricing</a> for its FreeShift is definitely attractive to most PaaS seekers out there (myself included). On the other hand, enlightenment dawns upon myself when I stumbled upon <a href="http://octopress.org/">Octopress</a>. Without the need to manage database for blogging and also utilizing the hacker way of publishing via <code>git push</code> to push updates to the server.</p>
<p>There are three parts:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Setup an Openshift Account</p></li>
<li><p>Setup Octopress and Link to Openshift</p></li>
<li><p>Install Greyshade Theme</p></li>
</ul>
<p>I would like to credit the deployment of Octopress to Openshift write-up to <a href="http://www.shellco.de/">Shellcode</a> and the <a href="http://shashankmehta.in/archive/2012/greyshade.html">Greyshade</a> theme design to Shashank Mehta.</p>
<p>And so, it begins&hellip;</p>
<p></p>
<h2 id="setup-an-openshift-account">Setup an Openshift Account</h2>
<p>On this part, it is mainly about getting your own Openshift account and perform the necessary settings to accommodate Octopress deployment (for further details, please refer to <a href="http://www.shellco.de/deploying-octopress-on-openshift/">this</a>).</p>
<p>The necessary steps are:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Click on Add Application in the dashboard of your Openshift account</p></li>
<li><p>Select and install Ruby 1.9 application</p></li>
<li><p>Copy the generated git repository URL (As an <strong>example</strong> <code>ssh://abc1234@blablabla-foobar.rhcloud.com/~/git/foobar.git/</code>)</p></li>
</ol>
<h2 id="setup-octopress-and-link-to-openshift">Setup Octopress and Link to Openshift</h2>
<p>Next, this will mainly describe on the necessary settings to setup Octopress in your local machine and subsequently push it to Openshift.</p>
<p>Below are the next steps:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>In your terminal, enter <code>git clone git://github.com/imathis/octopress.git octopress</code> at wherever you want to have Octopress in your local machine</p></li>
<li><p>Enter into the Octopress directory</p></li>
<li><p>In your terminal, enter <code>bundle install</code> to compile the Gemfile</p></li>
<li><p>Next, type <code>bundle exec rake install</code> to complete Octopress setup</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Then, the local Octopress and Openshift has to be linked together in order to make the deployment to the PaaS a success (that is why the generated git repo URL is copied earlier on!). I have been following Shellcode&rsquo;s methodology in having a staging public directory. I think this methodology of having a staging public directory and utilizing only the necessary files to commit is disk-space relieving for most PaaS and I like it. Anyway, moving on:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Copy the Gemfile and config.ru file generated from the Octopress setup</p></li>
<li><p>Exit Octopress folder by going one level up or just enter <code>cd..</code> in your terminal</p></li>
<li><p>Create a <em>_deployment</em> folder and enter into it</p></li>
<li><p>Paste the copied Gemfile and config.ru file into the <em>_deployment</em> folder</p></li>
<li><p>Type <code>bundle install</code> to generate a Gemfile.lock</p></li>
<li><p>Create a <em>public</em> folder in it</p></li>
<li><p>Type <code>git init</code> to initialize the repository</p></li>
<li><p>Type <code>git remote add openshift ssh://abc1234@blablabla-foobar.rhcloud.com/~/git/foobar.git/</code></p></li>
<li><p>Type <code>git add .</code></p></li>
<li><p>Type <code>git commit -m &quot;Initial commit&quot;</code></p></li>
<li><p>Exit <em>_deployment</em> folder by going one level up</p></li>
<li><p>Copy <em>_deployment folder</em> and enter Octopress folder</p></li>
<li><p>Paste <em>_deployment folder</em> within Octopress folder</p></li>
<li><p>Type <code>git add _deployment/</code></p></li>
<li><p>Type <code>bundle exec rake new_post['Hello World']</code></p></li>
<li><p>Edit the newly generated markdown file however you want and save it</p></li>
<li><p>Type <code>bundle exec rake generate</code> and this will generate some files within your public folder (<em>octopress/public</em>)</p></li>
<li><p>Enter into the directory <em>octopress/_deployment/public</em> and delete everything inside there</p></li>
<li><p>Copy all the files generated from <em>octopress/public</em> to <em>octopress/_deployment/public</em></p></li>
<li><p>Enter to the folder <em>octopress/_deployment</em> in your terminal</p></li>
<li><p>Type <code>git add .</code> to add all the new files to be pushed to the Openshift repo</p></li>
<li><p>Type <code>git commit -m &quot;New blog post&quot;</code></p></li>
<li><p>Type <code>git push openshift master</code></p></li>
</ol>
<p>Then you will see Openshift spewing some stuff out in your terminal to show the background jobs running and once you see <code>remote: Done</code>, you can visit the URL of your blog in Openshift check how awesome it is to have it hosted there!</p>
<h2 id="setup-greyshade-theme">Setup Greyshade Theme</h2>
<p>Finally, this is regarding the installation of Greyshade theme to Octopress. The few main reasons why utilize Greyshade theme are:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Responsiveness design (try use a mobile phone or tablet to view it, everything scales nicely)</p></li>
<li><p>Simple and clean user interface</p></li>
<li><p>Nicely designed favicon included for social media</p></li>
</ul>
<p>The instructions for this portion is adopted from <a href="https://github.com/shashankmehta/greyshade">here</a>. So the steps in this part are:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Enter into the octopress folder in your local machine via your terminal</p></li>
<li><p>Type <code>git clone git@github.com:shashankmehta/greyshade.git .themes/greyshade</code></p></li>
<li><p>Go to this <a href="http://hslpicker.com/">website</a> and pick a colour theme that you have not seen in <a href="https://github.com/shashankmehta/greyshade/wiki/Sites-using-Greyshade">here</a></p></li>
<li><p>In your terminal, type <code>echo &quot;\$greyshade: *colour*;&quot; &gt;&gt; sass/custom/_colors.scss //Substitue 'color' with your highlight color</code>; substitute <em>colour</em> with your chosen colour theme</p></li>
<li><p>Type <code>bundle exec rake &quot;install[greyshade]&quot;</code></p></li>
<li><p>Delete everything that is within <em>octopress/public</em> and <em>octopress/public/_deployment</em></p></li>
<li><p>Type <code>bundle exec rake generate</code> and copy the generated files in <em>octopress/public</em> to <em>octopress/public/_deployment</em></p></li>
<li><p>Add your updated files for pushing to Openshift repo by typing <code>git add .</code></p></li>
<li><p>Type <code>git commit -m &quot;Updated theme for Octopress&quot;</code></p></li>
<li><p>Push your update to Openshift repo by typing <code>git push openshift master</code></p></li>
<li><p>Go to the URL of your Openshift application and marvel upon the Greyshade themed Octopress, hosted by Openshift</p></li>
</ol>
<h2 id="conclusion">Conclusion</h2>
<p>Thus, with this <em>unconventional</em> way of blog setup (rather than using readily-made available services such as Tumblr, hosted Wordpress or Blogger), learning via technology and blogging would definitely be fun! Cheers for your attention!</p>
<p>P.S. If you see any mistakes or just want to say hi, just drop a note below!</p>